Cubs overcome Ramirez

July 26, 2003|BY DAN McGRATH.

HOUSTON — About the time Aramis Ramirez was making their fans nostalgic for the days of Todd Hundley, the Cubs decided they wanted to remain active in a National League Central race in which they had begun to look like an overmatched entry.

They beat the Houston Astros 5-3 in the opener of a three-game series at sold-out Minute Maid Park on Friday night, drawing within 4 1/2 games of first place on another star-crossed evening for Ramirez.

The newly acquired third baseman helped Houston to three first inning runs when he lost a bouncer in the lights--it went for an infield single--then threw the ball away on what would have been an inning-ending force out.

In the second he rapped into a double play. Gary Scott, we hardly knew ye.

But Carlos Zambrano took his new teammate off the hook. With the Cubs in desperate need of a well-pitched game, Zambrano delivered-big-time, as manager Dusty Baker would say. He shut down the Astros on two hits after the unfortunate first, leaving it to Joe Borowski with one out in the ninth. And he tied the game with an unlikely but well struck two-run home run with two outs in the seventh.

As press-box sages wondered why in the world Baker would let his pitcher bat in that situation, Zambrano pumped Wade Miller's 0-2 pitch deep in into the right-field seats for a 3-3 tie. In the eighth, Moises Alou took Octavio Dotel out to left-center with Mark Grudzielanek aboard on a leadoff walk to pin the defeat on Houston's supposedly impregnable bullpen and halt the Cubs' most recent three-game losing streak.

A must-win game? That's a bit of a stretch, maybe, when there are 60 games to play. But the Astros have been playing .600 ball since May 1, and that should be plenty good in a division no one seemed much interested in winning until about a month ago.

"We've had a good July," said veteran first baseman Jeff Bagwell, who punctuated it with his 400th career home run in Cincinnati earlier this week.

Bagwell, playing with a sore right shoulder that affects his range of motion, is hitting an uncharacteristically low .278, with 21 homers and 55 RBIs.

"But he's something like .430 with runners in scoring position," said Baker, long an admirer. "That dude can hit."

He's not the only one. The Astros were largely a speed, pitching and defense enterprise in the spacious Astrodome, but they have bulked up to take full advantage of Minute Maid's cozier dimensions, even if they were the ruination of one-time 20-game winner Jose Lima, who left town talking to himself.

Lima should have stuck around to enjoy the damage Bagwell, Richard Hidalgo, Jeff Kent and Lance Berkman have been inflicting. They have combined for 71 homers and 228 RBIs for a club that averages 5.5 runs a game and is third in the NL with 122 homers.

Berkman, whose slow start corresponded with the team's, is up to .287 with 20 homers and 67 RBIs. He emerged as a star last season, hitting 42 homers and leading the league with 128 RBIs.

"He's another guy who can just hit," Baker said.

But the Cubs kept them all in check. Berkman's ninth-inning single was the only hit the Houston foursome managed on a collective 1-for-15 evening.

Still, with rare exceptions such as Friday night, the Astros are more than the sum of their numbers and keep finding ways to win.

Shortstop Julio Lugo was effectively fired May 1 after an ugly domestic violence arrest (he was subsequently acquitted), but 26-year-old Adam Everett has stepped in to provide dependable defense and a .247 average with 26 RBIs from the No. 8 spot in the order.

No. 1 starter Roy Oswalt, 19-9 last year and 33-12 for his two-season career, has had shoulder trouble all season and has missed five starts. Up stepped rookie Jeriome Robertson to go 10-3. The bullpen rotation of former Notre Damer Brad Lidge, Dotel and Billy Wagner enables the Astros to play a lot of six-inning games.

"Our bullpen has been lights out," Bagwell said before Dotel coughed up Friday's game.

No one embodies the Astros' commitment to winning better than veteran Craig Biggio, a pro's pro. After putting up Ryne Sandberg-like numbers over 10 years at second base, Biggio, a converted catcher, accepted a move to center field so Houston could add free-agent Kent's big bat to its lineup.

Biggio is 37, and playing Minute Maid's center field, with its vast territory, its funky hill and its in-play flagpole, would be a challenge for a youthful Paul Blair. Biggio's sliding catch of a blooper that took a hit away from Eric Karros in Friday's eighth inning was indicative of the vigor he brings to his new position.

"I like their club," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said of the moderately priced Astros, who could be a role model for the Cubs in terms of producing a consistent winner--they have played in the postseason four times in the last six years.

"They're a good blend of old and young. Their scouts and development people do a good job. They've done well in Venezuela, and they've made some good additions to fill in."

But for one night, at least, the Cubs were better. Even Ramirez had a hand in it with a single in the eighth inning.